Archive for February, 2014

Today I woke up late. I must have been knackered and also it was late night training last night. It was drag shorts February’s last night – Yeah!!! It wasn’t too much of a tough group however I kept looking over into lane 5 elites and wondering how they can swim so fast at such a low cadence. I need to get to that standard and I am going to!!

Did a nice gentle 8km run in the morning yesterday and I feel good. So we are definitely back on track now and I can officially get my running program back on – thank goodness!!

My Polar RC3 is playing up again – I have had real trouble with this unit and would not recommend one unless you are the 3 time a week runner. I use mine for all three sports – maybe too much for it. I have a habit of breaking things. Not on purpose. My Bose SEi2 earphones are meant for sport but I have taken them back 6 times because the microphone has broken due to moisture – Im a heavy sweater I think!! I should be a product tester for these people as nothing gets past me lol.

Today I have a strength session later and then I have long ride in the hills tomorrow followed by a brick of 6km.

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After today I feel knackered and I am falling asleep writing this – so if he doesn’t make sense then you know why.

Got up early, went swimming and I was feeling strong. I did my 3x1067m or 3.2KM in 52mins. So I knocked a minute and a half off. I am now nearly on target for ironman distance in a hour – as of today at that pace it would be 61mins – so all is looking good on the swim front – he strength work in the gym is really helping. Plus the fact i have been Overdosing on swimming because I wasn’t able to run.

The gorgeous Richmond Park.

I then cycled at pace 28.5km/hr hilly 30km and then finished it with a 4km brick run. So really I did a little triathlon today haha. I then at an exhibition and meetings to got to in the City which went well – except I was hungry all day long. I raced back home so I could get to the gym and do a strength session before my tri club Turbo group session. As it was dry I cycled there on my TT bike – OMG I forgot how fast it is when you get the wheels turning. I was hitting over 60km/hr down the hill haha. Turbo was good but the coach mentioned that we are having a Pizza night after Turbo next week and well I couldn’t wait for the session to be over and go an eat. No one tells you that Ironman Training costs so much in food – all worth it though. I really believe that this strength training has massively increased my metabolism though. I weighed in today and lost a Kilo again since last week. It’s coming off too fast – but to be honest it’s great! Except today my newish suit is now too big for me and I need to put extra holes in my belts!!

Actually this is quite funny – I thought the other day that I could try shrinking some of my clothes on a really hot wash and dry – since in the past when i don’t want something to shrink – I shrink it! We’ll NO its didn’t work..typical hahah I will just have to go and buy some new clothes soon.

All in all a good day – very heavy doing all that though. Got a nice easy 8km run in the morning and then club training in the evening,.

Put together new plan – increasing the pace with specific targets and also including running now – Yipeeeee!!! I ran to the gym yesterday and its all good – My physio is happy and I don’t have to see her again 😦 so thats great!!

Couldn’t sleep last night so I scrapped my training this morning. I’m sticking to the 6 hour rule that if i can’t have 6 hours sleep then don’t train.

Heres my new week schedule:

Richmond Park X 2 to and from my house is 30KM. I was doing 50KM but now I am focussing on lifting the average speed from my 26.5km/hr to 30km/hr. The clockwise profile of the park is one steep climb and a long gradual climb – normally a fairly strong headwind too. However clockwise is a better training profile and harder work.

Whilst I am writing this I had to leave and jump start my car (again) and then I took it for a drive and broke down again. SO annoyed and now its 11PM and I have to crash, as I can’t miss another training morning.

Howdy folks. I’m feeling awesome today. I woke up this morning and there was this strange yellow/orange orb in the sky and blue skies – I’ve now remembered that’s the sun!! Yippee!!!

So Saturday is the long ride day with the Tri Club. The last couple of Saturday’s haven’t happened because ALL roads into Surrey have been underwater (I’m sure you’ve seen on the News). So this morning after my porridge and tea, I went to the meeting spot at Richmond Park. I believe every cyclist in London had the same sentiments – It was busy!! I joined a “lane 3” group. Our group had 7 which (apart from the odd number) is a great size group. We headed out to box hill (site of the cycling in the 2012 London Olympics), stopped for coffee and back to Richmond Park. The pace was fairly brisk today and we averaged 27km/hr, but that’s included the traffic and stopping etc, so I think it was more like 32km/hr ish. On the flats we were doing about 42km/hr taking turns at the front.

The ride felt good and when I stopped for coffee I ate some homemade flapjacks and a banana that I brought with me. I was conscious that I was doing a run straight after this 92km hilly ride and just tried to hold a little in the tank.

I got back to my house took off my jersey and bibs and put on my trainers and shorts and off I went for my first run since I “re-injured” myself 2 weeks ago. Well I was sticking to the plan and if I felt any pain I would stop and walk. With my physio’s advice not to do more than 4 or 5km – I also (reluctantly) stuck to that as well. I did 3 laps of my local Park by the river and back which equated to 5.5KM. I did this in 26mins which is ~ 4.52mins/km. Slow but I’m running!

I could’ve carried on for longer, but I thought better of it and said to myself “ffs Chris listen to the advice you keep getting AND ignoring”. I felt good. I was whacked though. I started to get cramp in the front of my thigh above my knee, which I get sometimes after swimming long/hard – I think I need to start drinking sports drinks instead of just water(probably a lack of electrolytes). I was having a conversation about gels and iso/carb drinks today. In all my training so far, I don’t ever use these products. I just haven’t needed to, but now that the distance is getting further and I’m doing brick sessions, I suppose I am going to have to start sooner, rather than later and get my digestive system used to these (awful in my opinion) gels etc. I think I will probably start off with the Powerbar products as that’s what Ironman UK distribute on the day (main sponsor) and that will just make life a little easier. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

So all in all feeling good about how things are progressing. Got club swimming tomorrow in those drag shorts again – agghhh!! I was thinking about the actual distance of an ironman today, I mean I only cycled half distance and ran 5km. It’s going to be really tough and now its under 5 months till the big day – a bit of panic is setting in!!
I also need to up my game on the fundraising as well. I only have £20 so far – but then I haven’t really tried yet. I need to get some sponsorship from local business, family, friends and work connections. It is such a big commitment doing this ironman and raising essential money for MacMillian – so I need to focus on this over the next few days and formulate a more structured plan. I have a just giving page (click on the menu tab above) so need to promote that also.

Anyway folks I am off to watch the last episode of house of cards and have spaghetti and chicken with pizziolla sauce. mmmmm. Happy Training all!!..over and out!

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was in an everything’s shit mood for no real reason?? I had to constantly fight with myself to actually get out of bed at 6am and hit the pool and bike session that is in my plan.
Anyway finally dragged myself there and glad I did. Swim was strong and needed to loosen up from the shoulder strength exercising I did in the gym the night before. I really pushed it at the gym and was fairly sore from the weight training.
I did 3 x1067m in 53mins flat so on track. Pace was endurance and consistent.

I then did 31km on the bike round Richmond Park. Kept the cadence and power high. I’m really struggling to get my heartbeat over 88% of mhr at the moment. It’s normally my lungs that go first but i can take the pace and power and burning but just can’t get the heart rate maxed. This is very odd. I mean I’m been training hard now for a while so am I just fitter and I just need to really push even harder???

This evening cycled to Thursday training and decided to do a spin class and try again to max out the heart rate. No such luck again!! Mmmm??? Then straight into very very hard swim drills/ sets.
Drag shorts again but a fast past – after this mornings swim I struggled and think could be too much!!!

OMG when you write it down like that!!!! Feed the five thousand. Anyway good news on the body fat and weight. Down to 77kg this morning. That’s a massive milestone for me. Another 3kg to go. Seem to be losing 1kg a week at the moment which is a bit more than I wanted to but as you can see I’m eating!!!

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off. Well I’ll go to the gym and do my strength/ core and maybe a cardio session too on the cross trainer.

Music wise it’s been a Sasha mix from Ushuaia 2010 – banging!!
Happy training all xx

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I realise that more often than not I am always thinking ahead. When I get there! In a weeks time. etc etc.. I really ought to live in the now and relish the current experience. So I’ve downloaded a 4 part session on mindfulness – I just need time to fit it in now! ha ha. Apparently this will help my training and make each session more focussed and work harder. Lets hope so. I will keep you posted.

Right I haven’t posted since Saturday. That’s because I’ve just been shattered. I did have lots of rest over the weekend. I also eat plenty of carbs and built up my energy stores. So Sunday’s club swim session was awesome. I felt strong and kept going the whole time without really slowing – it got so hard though!
It was a tough session again wearing drag shorts and this week we also had to hold off on using our legs in the drills. Total was 3500M with the main sets comprising of (4X200m)X3 and then finished off with sprints – A very good hour and half.

Monday I did my endurance swim of 3 x 1067M (3.2km) in 53mins(on target) followed by 2 fairly brisk laps of Richmond Park on the bike. Averaged out 28.1KM/hr which is getting better and I’m slowly building the speed. The turbo sessions have really helped here. Also when I get back on the TT bike I have a feeling my average speed over a few laps of the park will be at 30km/hr + in the clockwise direction (steeper climbs).

Today Tuesday I got up early and locked myself out. I realised when I arrived at the swimming pool at 6:30am and couldn’t lock my bike – aghhhhh!!! so I sprinted home and couldn’t get hold of any neighbours until an hour later to let me in and get the spare key!! So my training was blown this morning. Instead I enjoyed a cappuccino and watched an episode of house of cards! Now I have a case of non training guilt, but no worries I will just swap today with Friday’s rest day.

Food wise I’m on top of things, eating well. Porridge for breakfast, 2 apples a day, a banana, scrambled eggs and tomatoes on rye for lunch, chicken and veggies for dinner and muesli and yoghurt with grapefruit as a snack. Plus I made some more homemade humous which i snack on with celery and ryvitas.

Music playing at the moment, is the Foals and when training I’m listening to Eric Volta.

I need to find some motivation. I have 5 months to go till ironman and I’m starting to loose some of my determination etc.
I’ve felt like this all week and now I’m worrying if this is not going to pass. Am I going to actual give up? Will I have the mental resolve to continue this journey?
I know the weather isn’t helping at all. Shit what shall I do???
I have club swimming tomorrow and I’m going to take the TT bike out for 50/60km.
I need some inspiration!!